ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Chirurgica 2006 February;61(1):39-44

Copyright © 2006 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography in the endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms

Chierichetti F., Costantini E., Campanati B., Miglierina L., Tori A.

U.O. di Chirurgia Vascolare Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedale di Busto Arsizio Busto Arsizio, Varese

ether with angio CT, after 6 and 12 months. Results. In the situations where TEE was used we found 5 cases of endoleaks and 1 of these was not detected by angiography because of its small dimensions. All of these endoleaks were immediately corrected with more angioplasty or graft extensions; in a case, where we could not utilize the TEE, the problem solved spontaneously after 30 days as it was confirmed both by angiography and angio TC. The statistical analysis with the Student t test is significant for P<0.005.
Conclusion. We think that using TEE during the placement of an endograft on the descending thoracic aorta may help to obtain useful information in adition to those that we can obtain with angiography. Therefore, this may lead to improve the technique and to reduce possible both immediate or delayed complications.